Today being Halloween, I thought I would share with you a different angle on the Scarecrows of Town Square.

Most people photograph the scarecrows you see upon entering the Magic Kingdom standing up. When you do it that way, you have to be very careful of what is happening in behind the scarecrows. People will be walking there, Photopass photographers have a Halloween setup which is very busy and cast members could be selling balloons on Main Street USA to name a few background distractions.

To help eliminate such “noise” in my scarecrow photos below, I got down low (yes, folks, that means bending those knees). There are still people in some of the photos below but they are at the bottom of the frame and blended into the corn stalks Disney used this year at the base of each of the scarecrows.

Dressed up Scarecrow in Town Square.
Nikon D700/28-300VR, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 200, EV 0, 30mm focal length.

Another tricky background object is the flag pole. As you can see here, I did not do a very good job of getting the flag pole out of the frame. I should have moved to my right a little more.

Baker Scarecrow pushing sugar around Town Square.
Nikon D700/28-300VR, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 200, EV 0, 34mm focal length.

On this photo of the Scarecrow Mayor I did a better job.

Scarecrow Mayor looking for votes around Town Square.
Nikon D700/28-300VR, 1/320s, f/14, ISO 200, EV 0, 30mm focal length.

It was very hard to not get any of the trees in the frames for a couple of the scarecrows so I tried to find a pleasing composition with them in it.

Drummer Scarecrow banging away on Town Square.
Nikon D700/28-300VR, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 200, EV 0, 38mm focal length.

Working to get clean or less distracting backgrounds in your photos is well worth the effort. Keep it in mind the next time you are out photographing.

BLOG NOTE: As you may have read this week, Lisa will no longer be writing her Picture This! blog or contributing to the Disney Pic of the Week. For the time being, it is just Erin and myself. Erin will be continuing the popular Where in the World contests as I will post a Disney Pic of the Week every Tuesday and this blog on Friday.

Next year I plan on visiting Walt Disney World a couple of times. Watch for Photowalk announcements about a month before each visit. If you have any questions, would like me to cover a particular photography subject or have a Pic of the Week suggestion, drop me a comment.